Apparatus for disengaging gear teeth of power driven railway trucks



Oct. 5, 1943. J, F, o ow 2,330,973

APPARATUS FOR DISENGAGING GEAR TEETH OF POWER DRIVEN RAILWAY TRUCKS Filed Nov. 5, 1941 s Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR JESSE F'. HOLLOWAY J. F. HOLLOWAY APPARATUS FOR DISENGAGING GEAR TEETH OF 00':- 5, POWER DRIVEN RAILWAY TRUCKS Filed Nov. 5, 1941 3 Sheets-Sheet 2,

Z .l 1 w v ,INVENII'OR JESSE F. HOLLOWAY 5 ATTORNEY Oct. 5, 19 43. J. F. HOLLOWAY 2,330,973

' APPARATUS FOR DISENGAGING GEAR TEETH OF POWER DRIVEN RAILWAY TRUCKS 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed NOV. 5, 1941 INVENTOR JESSE F. HOL LOUAY electric motor for driving an axle through Patented Oct. 5, 1943 APPARATUS FOR DISENGAGING GEAR TEETH on rowan nRIvnN .RAILWAY TRUCKS Jesse F. Holloway, Aidan, Pa., assignor to The Baldwin Locomotive Works a corporation of Pennsylvania Application November 5, 1941, Serial No. 417,910 a 3 Claims. (01. 105- 136) This invention relates generally to locomotives and more particularly to those employing an a pinion and gear.

Electric motors employed in locomotives of Diesel electric type or of the all electric type drive the axles through gears whose teeth casionally break thus requiring removal of the locomotive to a round house for repairs. Heretofore considerable difliculty has been encounered in returning a locomotive to the round house because the gear teeth become jammed upon breakage of a tooth. It is particularly desirable to have the locomotive travel under its own power through the remaining motors and gears which are in good condition but this has been difficult because of the'jammed teeth. On the other hand, the Wheels associated with the broken gears have at times been skidded along y,

the track but this merely causes a fiat spot to be worn on the jammed wheel andaccordingly aggravates the repair work to be done. Furthermore, such skidding practice requires taking another locomotive out of active service fortowing away the disabled locomotive. To avoid these difiiculties it has been customary either to burn ofi the armature shaft or split the gears 'inorder to disengage the pinion, this'of course being costly to the railroad as well as tying up the trackway for a long period of time inasmuch as the operation is performed at the point where the locomotive is stalled.

It is an object of my invention to provide improved means whereby a locomotive may be returned to a desired destination preferably under its own power without aggravating the damage already done to a wheel whose driving gears are broken.

A further object is to provide improved means whereby the pinion and driven gear of any damaged gear set may be rendered completely inoperative in a simple, direct and effective manner by a locomotive crew at the time the damage occurs so that the locomotive may then be returned to its desired destination or round house preferably under its own power.

A still further object is to provide improved means adapted to utilize, as a cooperative part of my improved combination, existing truck and motor structure to separate the motor pinion from the axle gear and maintain the same in separated relation during travel of the locomotive to the round house or other destination.

Other objects and advantages will be more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following'description of the accompanying drawings in which: v

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a truck partially broken away to show my improved gear disengaging means; y

Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken'substantially on the line 22 df Fig. 1; I v g Fig. 3 isa fr gmentary section of acomplete motor bearing journalled upon a driving axle; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan View of one end of a truck frame with my gear separating means attached thereto, this View being taken substantially at'the position of line 4-4 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged section showing my improvedme'ans applied to the motor housing for disengaging gears and for supportingthe motor housing in the disengaging position during transit.

While I have shown my invention as applied to one form 'of electric truck, it will of course be understood that my .invention may be employed on various other formsand types of trucks. In the particular truck herein disclosed, I s have shown a pair of wheels I mounted upon axles 2 and journalled in usual journal boxes 3 which in turn are supported in pedestals of a suitable truck frame 4. This frame may be supported upon any suitable spring suspension system specifically shown herein as having longitudinal springs 5 supported upon an equalizing beam 6 which, as is customary, has its ends seated upon the journal boxes 3. A usual bolster 1 of the rigid type is suitably supported upon the spring system between side wheel pieces 4 of the truck framealthough other types of bolsters may be employed. The side wheel pieces are connected at their ends by usual end sills 8. As is customary, the axles are provided with gears 9 driven by an electric motor l0 through a pinion gear H. The electric motor is journalled, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, upon the axle 2 through a pair of transversely spaced journal bearings l2 and I3 which, as shown in Fig; 3, have usual bearing caps l4 removably secured to the motor frame by bolts l5 and cap screws Hi. The motor torque is resisted by a pairof usual motor arms I! engaging an intermediate spring cushion arrangement con: sisting of a pair of bars l8 between which compression springs l9 are disposed. The cross bars l8, in turn, rest against the inner horizontal sides of two bolster arms 20 and 2|. Regardless of the direction of motor rotation the torque is adequately resisted and cushioned.

To accomplish my improved result of disconnecting the pinion in a. simple, direct and effective manner, I propose to bodily shift the entire vided extremely simple and rugged elements but also have brought the same, in the illustrative embodiment herein, in cooperative relation to existing truck frame and motorelementsg For. 3 instance, as shown in Figs. 1 and 5,11 s'uppplfitill arm 24 having a preferably inverted U-sh'aped provided at its lower endyvith a recess-,2? in which a bolt-28 is rotatably seated. The outer end of this bolt is threadedly receivedin a bracket 28 which is bolted to the upperears 39 of the motor bearing. As shown in Fig.;,4 the bragket 2}! is 1-2.5 wide as the motor bearing and is provided with holes which register with the motor holes for bolts 15. Hence itis possible to util e he sam bolt 1.5 as ar no mal us for holding the motor bearing cap ,UI, Each of the motor bearings l2 and 13 are providedwith one of the foregoing brackets and armsigand hence the description of one will sufiicefor both.

Operation-smitten a gear becomes damaged the locumojtivecrew will first remove bolts 45 cap screws it'from both axle motor hearinggsqlg and i3 and then secure the supporting bracltets ,2! to the end sill .8 in case the bracketsarepf the removab e y Th bbltstzli wil the be inserted into .the recesses 21 and the ,braclget, 23 will be secured by bolts IE; to the upper ears,

,of the motor bearings. The bolts .18 will then-be rotated by apply n a w n h to bos e =35 Q F s- From the foregoing disclosure it is seen that I have provided an extremely simple, direct and rugged combination of elements for allowing a disabled motor to be easily and quickly disconnected without unduly delaying trafiic on a roadway. The device is not only simple but is economicaland jcompact and hence can Joe made an effective 'partof regular equipment of each locomotive. Furthermore, my improved arrangement requires minimum disconnection or removal of regular parts of the locomotive or motor equipment and 'this is accomplished in part by reason of'having efieotiy ely imposed multiple functions on existing parts.

lt-will of ,e u-rs'e be understood that various changes in details of construction and arrangement of parts'may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

mb natioa ,a t unk ha n a frame m un ed 1. 1 ivhe les axles a meter h v Jamaa hearings m un ed on one of sa d ax es o support one end of said motor, a motor pinion, sea i be ween said pinio and ax 9 1 which me er s omma u n b ar n being in separa e sections wher e m to maybe moved laterally with respect to the axle .to ,e fiectdisengagement of said pinion and gearin g, element of variable length, means for s am ng e ema of said. elemen t a m t and means forsecuring theother end of said ele- .formed int r lly wit b l s-2 the eb bodi y moving the motor 10 upwardly and inwardly until pinion H isdisengaged from gear 9 During this inward movement of the motor it will Joe :Sl-idfl s p o t by a 1] on the cr ars 8 and arms .21 of the torque' cushionp When the pinion and gear are sufficiently separated it maly be lo ke lay a nut Jib-E gq mat ve will now b in r nd on to travel 02 1111 mai in motors Without danger -to further idarnaging the gears ,or other mechanism of the disabled wheel asse b y. It wl lp c r be unde s oo th t any usua se c d a amma ca l i i a e a 3.3 Fiei l be r mo ed or. su ta y disc- .n cted to p rm se a ation f the nion and gear. Also, if desiredathe cushion spring pressure o mot r su pe s n i a s i8 may be rel-icved'by sc w up .1 ol :22 Fi :2 t us permittin ea er shif in 10f the-motor. Q

me t t said f ame, said elem t x e d n in a direction whereby variation of said length moves =,met0 5 position for disengaging said ra mon and mmorabl hol s the m to n its d s ngaged "position.

v 2. The combination set forth in .claim 1 further ,characterized in that said variable length elemen @QIHPIi S a sc and nut one o wh ch is secured to said motor and the other to said frame in a su stant a l si an ula po on with respect to the motor andjrame whereby .unon r lative rota io .h tv en the. n a d screw themetor is bodi y sh fted to a d n age p s t on and he d in that-g ve di g nosition- ,3 The combination s'etforth in claim 1 further lia acterize by e r o is cf a member p je t n r m ai fram t a poin in omm alignment with sai :motor, which ali nment is invthe direction of disengaging movement of the motor, and said element including a nut and screw interposed between saidineniber and motor .50 that said screw is subjected ,to ,compression uponrela-ti-ve rotation between the nut and screw .to effect ,said disengagement whereby said motor is firmly held in its dig-sengaged position by the compressive force in said screw.

JESSE F. HOLLOWAY. 

